Embroidered Wallet Tutorial

I’ve been making my own wallets for about 6 years now. Wallets are fun to make because it’s something you see, everyday, well assuming you go shopping everyday. I always get lots of compliments from store clerks when I pull out my embroidered wallet. Nobody else will have your wallet—totally unique. So what are you waiting for, throw out that faux leather boring black wallet away and make yourself a new one!Obviously you can use printed fabric if you don’t have an embroidery machine.

Disclaimer, this not a beginner’s project. The hardest part will be binding the wallet at the end. If you have ever bound a quilt this will be super easy. If not, please, please, PLEASE, practice binding a small item first—like maybe making some pot holders? The second hardest part will be installing the zipper. It will help if you have some zipper experience but if not, I will do my best to help you. If you are new to zipper sewing please read through this project first and if it sounds difficult, practice first! If you are a beginner and you want to try this project, go ahead. Just know that your first wallet (or two) might be gifts to little girls playing house. And there’s nuttin’ wrong with that.

This is a blue linen wallet with my Triangles Stacked design stitched for an ombre effect—starting with dark navy blue then gradually fading all the way to white.

Here’s a wallet with beige linen, stitched with the Mum design.

Here’s the inside:

Here’s the back:

LET’S GET STARTED!

What you’ll need: 

1. Regular weight linen or cotton. I used the all-purpose linen (5oz. weight) found at fabrics-store.com. Linen embroiders beautifully—never puckers. I also used solid Kona cottons or other patterned quilting weight cottons for the interior. Don’t use canvas or denim—too heavy. Well, a lightweight denim or lightweight twill will work fine. Starch all fabrics heavily. Pre-washing the fabrics doesn’t matter for this project as you won’t be tossing your wallet in the wash—spot clean the wallet only.

2. Heavy fusible interfacing. I used Craft Fuse by Pellon.

3. Magnetic snap. I buy mine at Joann Fabrics (3 for $1.99) but most craft stores should have them nowadays. Velcro can be used instead but it just isn’t as professional looking. 

4. 7-inch zipper

While your fabric embroiders you’ll be making the interior of the wallet. (Assuming you have two machines. If not, at least cut out your wallet while the embroidery process is going.)So let’s get the embroidery machine going first!

EMBROIDER THE EXTERIOR BODY PIECE

Choose a design that is around 5”x7” or up to 8”x8” if possible. If you only have a 4”x4” hoop, no problem.   For this example I chose the honeycombs design size 5”x8”.

Hoop your heavily-starched linen and embroider your design. Obviously I am using a piece of fabric way bigger than I’ll need. Make sure your piece of fabric is cut at least 14”x14”. That will give you more flexibility when it comes time for placement of the design on your wallet.

While the exterior of the wallet is being embroidered, we will make the interior of the wallet. First cut the interior piece 11”x11”. We will eventually cut this way down but it’s easier to work with excess fabric and square up later. Interface this piece of fabric.

MAKE THE CREDIT CARD POCKETS 

These can hold stacks of cards so don’t be afraid that this only make 6 slots.

Cut out your four interior credit card pockets, each in the following sizes: 8”x10” (1), 7”x10” (1), 6”x10”(2)

Take one of the 6”x10” pieces and fold it lengthwise, right sides together. Sew the long side, turn right side out and press.

For the remaining pockets, fold them in half on the long side, wrong sides together. Press and starch heavily.

If you stack all four pockets, this is how they should look now. Pockets #1-3 have raw edges along the bottom, pocket #4 has a seam along the bottom.

Now we need to sew all the card pockets. A credit card is 2 1/4” x 3 1/2”.

Take piece #1 and #2 and stack them, raw edges even along the bottom. Mark from the top of pocket #1 down 2 1/4” inches. Mark a line all the way across and stitch together.

Trim off a little bit of pocket #2 to help avoid bulk for the final topstitching. Not too much, maybe 1/2”

Repeat for pocket #3

Stitch and trim pocket #3

Now you need to trim about 1/4” off of pocket #1. Y0u don’t have to do this step but it helps for the final topstitching if there isn’t a lot of bulky fabric underneath the final topstitching.

Repeat for pocket #4, but this time you’ll be moving pocket #4 down about 1/4” from the newly-cut raw edge of pocket #1. Pin together.

Sew your horizontal line 2 1/4” like you did on the other pockets. And then stitch a vertical line through all four layers directly through all of the pockets. Use a triple stitch for strength.

Place your pockets 1 1/2” down from the inside body edge and pin in place. (You’ll have an extra body fabric of about a 1/2” on both sides of the pockets.)

Sew the pockets to the body along the sides and the bottom. Then you’ll sew a vertical line 3 3/4” away from the middle line. The purpose of this line is to keep the credit cards tightly held in the pockets otherwise they’ll be loose and fall out. That would be bad if you lost a credit card. Bad.

Also, please match your thread unlike myself. I chose to use white thread even though the pocket is black just so you could see my stitching lines for this tutorial. But it would look so much better if it matched. Matching threads hides uneven lines as well.

ZIPPER POUCH FOR COINS AND BILLS

For the zipper pouch, cut 4 pieces of fabric 5”x10”. (Again we will cut this down to finished size later.) Take one piece of pouch fabric and lay the 7” zipper face down centered:

Lay another piece of pouch fabric on top of the zipper, right side down. (In the photo below I’ve already done the other side so don’t be confused by the photo.)

You can either use your zipper foot, or just move the needle all the way to the left and sew, feeling the coils of the zipper teeth between your fabric as a guide. (If this is confusing, google “how to sew a zipper pouch” and watch some tutorials. I know I kinda speed through the process.)

This is what it looks like now:

Fold fabric together, wrong sides together, then pull zipper taut away from fabric, iron and topstitch.

 

Repeat with the remaining fabric pieces. It should now look like this from the front….

….and this from the back.

Fold your pouch in half along the zipper, iron, and trim bottom so that it is even and so that pouch is 4” wide.

Baste all four layers together along the bottom.

Using a 1/4” seam allowance, sew zipper pouch (along bottom) to bottom of interior body. (Optional: To make the final wallet a little more compact you can opt to leave a half-inch space of the body along the bottom. In other words, don’t line up the raw edge of the zipper pouch with the raw edge of the body bottom. Move the zipper pouch up about 1/2”. )

Now it’s time to finally trim up the wallet to the final size! Square up the inside body to approximately 8.5”x9”. I say approximately because the goal is to have about 1/2”-3/4” border on the sides of the zipper (you don’t want to sew through the metal of the zipper and break a needle like I have when doing the final binding). The black and pink version pictured here ended up being larger, around 10.5”x8.75”. It’s all good!

Trimming the sides:

You also want to have about 1/2-3/4” border at the top of wallet.

Now the body is all trimmed up! This is the final size of your wallet. Here it is in the blue. Final measurement of the blue: 8.75”x9”.

Now it’s time to figure out the placement of your embroidery design for the exterior. this is the blue triangle version we need to cut out. I used the Triangles Stacked design.

This is the black honeycomb version we need to cut out.

Take your squared up interior piece and lay it on top of your embroidered piece. (If possible, trace the interior body piece onto thin tissue paper and use that instead.)

I opted to use the tissue pattern for the black honeycomb wallet so I could see through the paper and more easily figure out where I wanted my embroidery design placed. My placement was off a little for blue triangle wallet. I didn’t want to make that mistake again! It would help if you marked the tissue paper as to where the front will be so you don’t get mixed up.

Fold the interior piece in half and move it around the embroidered linen until you have the ideal placement. The ideal placement would be as much of the design on the front as possible without the design going too close to any of the edges. You don’t want to have to puncture any of the embroidery for the magnetic snap. You also don’t want the embroidery design going off the edge as all your beautiful stitches will be a waste of time if you’re just going to cut them off!

Using the body interior piece as a pattern, (or a tissue pattern) cut out the body exterior (the embroidered linen).

Once it is cut out you can place the two body pieces together, pinned, and if you fold it in half you’ll be able to see how your final wallet is going to look. Pretty!

I like to interface the body exterior along the middle since the middle section is where the snap will go and also where the strap will be sewn. You can interface the entire exterior body if your fabric is very thin. For this 5-oz. linen it wasn’t necessary.

Attach the snap 1 1/2’ up from the edge and centered.

Now to make the strap. Cut out a piece of linen 7”x4” and a piece of interfacing 1/2” smaller. Fuse together.

 

Iron up all the edges 1/2”. Attach the other half of the snap, centered and 1” from the edge.

Pin the strap closed and topstitch around all four sides about 1/8” inch. If possible, use your zipper foot to make going around the snap easier.

Pin the strap to the back of the wallet, centered. The goal here is to have the strap just ever-so-slightly loose right now. Once the wallet is filled with 100-dollar-bills, coins, and credit cards it will be thicker. So this ‘dry’ fitting is important. Too tight and you’ll wrinkle the wallet. Too loose and your wallet will shift and your stuff will fall out.

Sew the strap down with about a 1” x-pattern.

BINDING THE WALLET

There are some amazing tutorials out there for binding so I am not going to reinvent the wheel. I like this one from You go Girl, this one from Bloomin’ Workshop. Follow any method you  like for a finished 1/2” binding.

You’ll need to make about 1 1/4” yards of binding. I don’t cut my strips on the bias but on the cross grain. That  means your strips should be a bit stretchy.

 

To prep your wallet for binding I like to serge the edges (don’t cut off any of the wallet though with the serger knives!). Or use the zig-zag on your sewing machine.

I attach the binding to the inside of the wallet first.

Then flip it over to the exterior of the wallet and topstitch.

Doesn’t that topstitching look lovely? This honeycombs design is one of my favorites. Click here for Honeycombs.

Here’s the inside of wallet. I used the Lady Fern design on the inside.

I do NOT suggest rounding the corners of your wallet. In early attempts at writing this tutorial I thought it would be easier to teach you to bind rounded corners rather than having to miter square corners. Wrong. It doesn’t look as good as the square corners and getting the rounded corners to look perfect was impossible. (And yes, I did cut the pink on the true 45-degree bias for that one.)

Triangles Scattered design on orange linen. The triangles are stitched all in various shades of pink. The pink binding is 100% quilting-weight cotton. 

Triangles Stacked on blue linen with Kona cotton binding.

Enjoy!

Spring Banner

I’m just so happy I made it through another Utah winter. Actually, this wasn’t a bad winter—hardly any snow—so I shouldn’t have been so eager for spring, but I was eager, that’s for sure. I just crave the warmth too much.

I wanted some fun spring items for my house. First, I planted some wheat grass. Soak wheat grains over night, then plant. Search it on pinterest and you’ll get 432 tutorials. In one week you have this much wheat grass. Disclaimer, there are a lot of health freaks out there who put the cut wheat grass in their smoothies. Don’t do it. It’s disgusting and worse than the taste is the smell. I had to plug my nose to choke down my morning smoothie.

And then I decided to make something fun to hang for the month of April.  An embroidered banner with bunnies.  I used the following designs from my shop Meringue Designs: Circle Monogram, Bunny applique, and the banner sewing pattern for measurements and directions. In 2-3 hours I had a springy decoration to hang in my home.

My favorite part of the Circle Monogram is the final outline stitch of the letter, looks so polished. In the picture below you can see my machine wizzin’ away on the green outline for the letter S.

All the letters were appliqued in white cotton on pastel fabrics. I used a mix of upper case and lower case letters—all included in the monogram pack.

The lowercase “i” and “g” were so much cuter than their uppercase counterparts.

I didn’t use many pastel threads though—you want the letters to really pop.

Just so glad winter is over.

GIVE AWAY: Leave a comment by Monday April 1st to win all the same fabrics I used in my banner to make your own, along with the sewing pattern, the Circle Monogram, and the Bunny Applique. (Please make sure I have a way to contact you either by clicking on your blogger profile or leaving your email.)

WINNER IS COMMENT #4. Her blogger name is “tdehof”. I have no way of contacting her…..so if she doesn’t contact me I will pick a new winner tomorrow.

Pepperoni Pan Pizza

I used to make homemade pizza a lot. And then life got busy with teenagers and dinner prep time got shorter around 5 o’clock each night. I just didn’t have the time anymore to make my regular thin-crust pizza. The counters get too messy and I have to heat the pizza stones for nearly an hour. Then I discovered this Pepperoni Pan Pizza recipe in my America’s Test Kitchen cookbook last week.

Oh blessed day!  I’m back to making pizza on weeknights. Yes, the dough has to be made with yeast so it still has to rise, which takes time, but I made this again last night, got the dough made, drove my daughter to her ukulele lesson, came home and finished it off. So it’s doable on a weeknight as long as you are somewhat around. The kids love it, I love that I usually have all these ingredients on hand, and I love the minimal cleanup compared to regular pizza making.

I do have to double the recipe for my family of five. We eat about 3 of the pizzas and save one for snacks the next day. Pfff, teenagers.

The dough is what makes this recipe killer. It is chewy and crispy at the same time. Yes, it is a little thicker because it is pan pizza, but it’s not bready and dry. It has a great crispy chew. I’ve only found that same chew on deep dish pan pizza in Chicago.

The first time I made it we didn’t have any pepperoni but I did have a package of fresh basil so that’s what we topped them with.

I’m just so happy I found this recipe. Pizza on a weeknight. Yes.

Pepperoni Pan Pizza   Printable Version click here

Makes 2 9-inch pizzas (I double this for my family of 5)

Dough

2 tablespoons olive oil (plus more for greasing pans)

¾ cup skim milk plus 2 additional tablespoons, warmed to 110 degrees

2 teaspoons sugar

2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for counter

2 teaspoons instant yeast (or 1 package)

¾ teaspoon table salt

Topping

Sliced pepperoni

Basic pizza sauce: Cook 1 clove garlic in 1 T. olive oil in a saucepan until fragrant—don’t burn the garlic! Add a 14.5 oz can of crushed tomatoes and simmer, uncovered, 10 minutes until thickened.

3 cups shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

Turn oven to 200 degrees, then turn off once that temperature is reached. Mix milk, sugar, and oil in measuring cup. Mix flour, yeast, and salt in standing mixer fitted with dough hook. Turn machine to low and slowly add milk mixture. After dough comes together, increase speed to medium-low and mix until dough is shiny and smooth, about 5 minutes. Turn dough onto lightly floured counter, gently shape into ball, and place in greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and place in warm oven until doubled in size, about 30 minutes.

Coat two 9-inch cake pans with 1 ½ tablespoons of oil each.

To shape and top the dough: Transfer dough to lightly floured counter, divide in half, and lightly roll each half into ball. Working with 1 dough ball at a time, roll and shape dough into 9 1/2-inch round and press into oiled pan. Cover with plastic wrap and leave on counter about 20 minutes until dough is puffy. Meanwhile, heat oven to 400 degrees.

Place the pepperoni between paper towels on a plate and microwave about 30 seconds. This gets rid of lots of that pepperoni grease that usually just leaves pizza with an oil slick.

Remove plastic wrap from dough. Ladle sauce on each pizza, leaving 1/2-inch border around edges. Sprinkle each with 1 1/2 cups cheese and top with pepperoni. Bake until cheese is melted and pepperoni is browning around edges, about 20 minutes. Remove from oven; let pizzas rest in pans for 1 minute. Using spatula, transfer pizzas to cutting board and cut each into 8 wedges. Serve.

 Printable Version click here

Blueberry Cobbler with Frozen Blueberries

It’s March and we’re now in the dog days of winter.  But making this cobbler made me feel like summer would come again and fresh fruit would indeed find it’s way to Utah. You make it with frozen blueberries, or rather, there is an option to use frozen which is exactly what I did. I wouldn’t exactly call this cobbler health food, but as far as dessert goes, it’s about as healthy as you’re going to get. A simple biscuit topping on top of pre-baked blueberries.

The recipe, from the Cook’s Illustrated Baking Book,  says that once thawed, the blueberries should emit about 1 cup of juice. Ummm, mine gave me maybe a tablespoon of juice so I nixed the directions to follow when using frozen berries and instead just doubled the amount of cornstarch the recipe called for. It worked! The blueberry fruitiness was thick and jam-like while the biscuit made it a great weeknight dessert.

Printable recipe for Blueberry Cobbler

Winter Birthdays

It’s only February 5th and so far we’ve celebrated three birthdays in our household of five. That’s a lot of cake.

First, came my birthday on January 14th. It was the big 40th birthday. All my amazing friends brought me treats like meringues, flan, homemade croissants, and éclairs. That’s a lot for one middle-aged woman to eat but I did my best. I almost made myself my own cake but then decided to buy some Provo Bakery Donuts instead. Oh yea, those hit the spot.

I asked my hubby for a 40th birthday party but he just couldn’t come through—it’s not in his DNA to throw parties. I love him to pieces and he treats me wonderfully every day of my life (think foot rubs and dishes) but still, a party would have been nice. After all I threw him a party for his 40th a couple years ago as evidenced by these photos. I’m such a good wifey.

Back to the birthdays in 2014.

The next birthday was my daughter’s big day.  She turned 13. Gulp.

For her big day I made a Texas Sheet Cake by Cooks Country with Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate Cocoa powder. Umm, that makes for a cake that is almost black. The kids were a bit thrown off by the color but once I told them Oreos are made with dark cocoa that is Dutched they were okay with that. Not to mention once we tasted it…….holy cow. Best Texas Chocolate Sheet cake ever. And I’ve made a lot of them.

Sorry for the night time photos but I think you can still see just how nearly-black this cake is! So good.

Brothers and rabbit ears. Good grief.

The third birthday came just last night for my youngest child—I can’t believe she is 10 now. Sheesh, where have the years gone? That last sentence made me sound old.  Sheesh again. For this birthday I made a Boston Cream Pie. Why is it called pie when clearly it’s a cake? I must know.

Cake filled with pastry cream and then smothered in ganache. Yes please.

It was as good as it looked.

Aren’t birthdays fun? The next birthday in this house is just 24 days away…..hmmm what kind of cake to make. Better start thinking now.